You’ve just launched your marketing department for your shiny new startup, and at this point it consists of yourself, a developer who also writes, and someone from admin. This is a recipe for potential marketing nightmares, right? Not necessarily.
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LinkedIn is by no means a new social media platform. In many ways, it’s not even really a social media platform in the sense that Twitter, Instagram, etc. are. That means marketing here is just a bit...different.
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When you hear the word "influencer", what comes to mind? Maybe it's a celebrity, seen on Instagram flaunting the newest gadget or product. Or perhaps to you, an influencer isn't someone who is showing off a product to their followers, but rather is someone who is influencing a certain kind of lifestyle. But what if we said that a so-called influencer could actually be a marketing strategy proven to be effective, whether celebrity or not and regardless of how many followers they have?
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Your startup is off the ground and flying—congratulations! Now, time to focus some time and energy on your marketing efforts. What? You don’t have any budget left for marketing campaigns? Hmm, OK, don’t worry, there’s still plenty you can do to start marketing your amazing new widget beyond your initial investors.
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Any marketer who’s been around for a while will tell you that the classic A/B test is an invaluable part of any outbound marketing campaign. What they might not mention is that this simple testing method can also be invaluable to your inbound strategy as well.
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You may have read that the blog is dead. We beg to differ, in fact we would go so far as to say that the blog is back in a big, big way. Read on for information on how to turn your company blog into a passive source of clients and revenue.
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Software providers have the potential to offer a great deal of value to their consumers. Whether it's optimizing recruitment processes, implementing the use of artificial intelligence, or creating a useful customer relationship management tool, software fills gaps to create efficiency and make the day-to-day workload much more productive for clients. Although software providers know the benefits to the product they're producing, they also need to show potential consumers what they're missing out on. By engaging, educating, and developing trust with potential consumers, you can create lasting relationship that increase your success and make for delighted customers.
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With the dawn of each new year, marketers are finding new ways to better attract and engage with current and potential consumers. Staying up to date on what’s new and next helps you make sure that your strategies are current and as effective as they can be. As we look to the year ahead in 2019, we are already seeing some trends when it comes to content marketing. In a previous blog we took a deep dive into content marketing and how it’s all about attracting and engaging with your potential consumers by educating them with high quality content. It’s an organic way to build rapport and trust because you’re not selling, but rather solving a problem that will hopefully end in a delighted customer. Content marketing has evolved since its inception, and with innovative technology and new channels for communication, we don’t see that evolution slowing any time soon. Although the new year has just begun, we’re already seeing what’s new and next, including 5 trends for content marketing in 2019. Chatbots & Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence is being used more and more by nearly all businesses, whether you know it or not. It serves as an opportunity to not only meet your company’s bottom line, but it also allows you to more efficiently allocate your time. For instance, chatbots used to be seen in a negative light whenever they’d pop up on a website. Well, not anymore. Chat bots have come a long way from the first ever bot called ELIZA in 1966. Created by Joseph Weizenbaum, the chatbot laid the fundamentals for future innovations by using preprogrammed responses, phrases, and keywords (though it didn't pass the Turing Test, i.e. the test of users believing they were interacting with an actual person). Fast-forward a few decades and AI interfaces like Siri, Alexa, and Cortana are becoming more mainstream. Chatbots are now widely used on websites because they allow businesses to have more conversations with website visitors and interact like never before with sophisticated conversations that sounds much more real than previous efforts.
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As consumers continually change the way in which they make purchases, how do businesses know how to keep up and be seen? It’s marketing’s job to have their finger on the pulse and be knowledgeable about consumer behavior, which means it’s good practice to check in on the strategies you have in place to see what’s going well, what’s not working, and where there may be some opportunities to improve. Whether your business has been around for a couple years or it’s just starting up, inbound marketing can serve as a significant piece of your puzzle as you attract, engage, and delight your consumers. It lays a significant and solid foundation for how you do business and interact with potential consumers. Without inbound marketing, you’re probably using outdated strategies to attract leads and make conversions. Building awareness and trust is fundamental to inbound. Just think, if you’re a B2C company that’s using billboard advertising and direct mail to get the word out about your business, you’re really missing out on building a relationship with your consumer. Chances are that people who get the mailing or see your advertisement don’t give a second thought to doing business with you because they’re missing the why. Being able to demonstrate value and educate the consumer is what inbound marketing relies on to create success and keep consumers engaged. If you haven’t begun using inbound marketing and aren’t happy with the results your current marketing strategy is providing, here are 5 signs that inbound might work for you. 1. Poor SEO
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Think of the last time you had a question or were looking to make a purchase. What did you do first? Chances are that you’re in the group of 62% of people who turn to consult with a search engine before making a purchasing decisions (HubSpot, 2016). Businesses know that their ideal consumers are using Google as a resource, and that the goal is to figure out how to cut through all of the noise and really get people's attention. You’ve probably heard of search engine optimization, or SEO, and you intuitively understand the importance of ensuring you have a good SEO strategy in place. But how does SEO really work, and what does it mean for modern businesses?
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We tend to think of artificial intelligence (AI) in terms of tangible technologies, like robots or even Watson. But most AI-powered technology actually exists in a much more abstract form, in the form of algorithms. And that technology is incredibly important for marketers who wish to stay at the forefront of the industry.
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Understanding your customers' wants and needs is the first step to success. All marketers hope for a steady stream of qualified leads that begin their journey to eventually become a delighted customer. Of course, hope isn’t enough. Having a solid strategy for lead generation is important to gain prospects and customers and there are many ways to make sure you don’t have any missed opportunities.
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With a couple of thousand blog posts under our belt, it is always fascinating to observe which concoctions are attracting the most visitors, the most interactions, the highest conversions. For this year's review, we've looked at the highest visitor numbers in 2018 from some of our recent projects, generated by our content marketing team. Fun fact, not all of those posts were generated in 2018. The one that generated the most traffic this year, more than 40,000 visitors, was written in 2014. Hint: it seems apesurd. Talk about the long-term benefit of content marketing.....
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Marketing is a huge industry these days, with untold numbers of ‘experts’ vying for your attention and your marketing dollars. What to do if you’re looking for a sure way to grow your customer base, and in turn grow your revenue stream?
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Artificial intelligence (AI) has long been creeping into marketing technology. Chances are, you use multiple marketing tools that rely on at least some AI, even if you don't know it. As these technologies become more ubiquitous, it's important to understand what they are and how they impact the future of the industry. Here's a look at some key AI-related terms and how they're changing marketing.
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So you've set up your own business and have a website. You have a great product or service and have sold it to your first pilot customers, partners in your network, friends, and family. You get encouragement that your solution is something great and you are ready to conquer the world. What's next, though?
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In the digital world we live in, it’s no wonder more and more business are turning to digital marketing initiatives to meet their bottom line. When it comes to your digital presence, simply being online isn’t enough any more.
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is probably already a trusted tool in your marketing department. In a recent survey conducted by Salesforce, 61% of marketers already use some form of AI, and 27% plan to implement it in 2019. The enthusiasm for AI isn’t just because it’s a “shiny new toy”; it’s because AI offers “smarter inbound,” increasing conversion rates through predictive analytics, personalization and much more.
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Animation. Hero images. Visual randomness. 2019 promises to be an exciting year for web design, as new trends bring a fresh face to the internet. But forget the buzz words and flashy fads--it's important to focus on what comes next within the context of your organization's online marketing strategy and goals. If you're ready for a website refresh, focus on trends that will support greater speed and higher conversion rates,
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